U.S. Senate votes to extend jobless benefits

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The U.S. Senate late Monday passed a bill to extend federal jobless benefits for more than 2 million unemployed workers through May 31. If enacted, the bill would retroactively help the unemployed, who have been without benefits.

It would throw a financial lifeline to those who have been scrambling to get by since federal jobless benefits lapsed the week of December 28. Expiration of the recession era program took away a safety net for long term unemployed Americans who have been unable to find new work.